2021-03-22
John 15:12 NKJV
If love was a sentiment that depended on someone else’s actions and reactions, or an emotion over which you had no control, Jesus wouldn’t have said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” That means love is a choice you make. It’s initiated by your will.
Jesus also said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28 NKJV). And what He commands you to do, He will give you the grace to carry out.
For thousands of years (and to this day in some Eastern cultures), parents arranged their children’s marriages. Many brides and bridegrooms never saw each other until their wedding day. A certain young lady from India was to be married to a man she didn’t know. One day she received a letter from her fiancé, designed to acquaint her with him prior to the wedding. But the bride-to-be returned the letter unopened, saying she believed love should be developed after marriage, not before. “When we’re born,” she wrote, “we don’t get to choose our mother, father, brothers and sisters, yet we learn to live with them and to love them. So it is with a husband or wife.”
In societies that endorse this philosophy, divorce is almost nonexistent. Now, we’re not advocating arranged marriages, but the notion of “romantic love” that’s so prevalent today has little to do with a successful marriage. When you endeavor to love someone unconditionally the way Christ loves you, you experience joy and fulfillment.
Soul food: Job 29-31; Matt 24:36-51; Ps 55:1-11; Prov 8:17-18
2021-03-21
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
During the American Revolution, Spain gained control of the Bahamas. In April of 1783, Andrew Deveaux, a lieutenant colonel from South Carolina, recruited a handful of militiamen and Harbour Island settlers to retake Nassau using a clever strategy. Deveaux had only two hundred men with him, a far smaller force than that of the Spanish, but he managed to capture the high ground on the island after a brief skirmish. The Spaniards then watched as boats repeatedly ferried load after load of men from Deveaux’s ships to his defensive position on the shore. What the Spaniards didn’t know was that the same men kept going back and forth, standing up on their trip over to the island, and hiding themselves by lying low in the boat on the trip back to the ships. The leader of the Spanish troops, fearing a defeat from a larger force in an invulnerable position, surrendered.
When you succumb to fear, you’re already beaten. People ruled by fear stay where it’s safe. And that’s sad, because you can’t reach your potential by staying where it’s safe. Shakespeare said, “Our doubts are traitors, and they make us lose what we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
What would you attempt in life if you were sure you couldn’t fail? Before you answer, read these words of David: “When I cry out to You…my enemies will turn back…I know, because God is for me” (Psalm 56:9 NKJV). Believe that God is on your side today, then step out and attempt the thing you’re afraid to do! You’ll never be the same again – you’ll be liberated!
Soul food: 2 Kings 4:42-44;
Mark 6:30-44
2021-03-20
Job 3:25 NKJV
Do you ever fantasize about solutions to problems you fear may or will come your way? Ironically, when you do, what started out as an unfounded fear can turn into a real problem because you expended energy on wasteful thinking instead of productive action.
Joe Tye, author of Never Fear, Never Quit, says: “Wishful thinking is the lock that fear puts on the prison gate. Fear lets you indulge yourself, for a while, in flights of wishful thinking. Somehow, you think, something will happen to make the problems go away. By the time you wake up, it’s too late. What you feared has happened, and fear has defeated you. The only way to escape from the prison of fear is action. You cannot wish your way out, you cannot wait your way out. You can only work your way out. Every time you escape the prison of fear, you grow stronger” (emphasis mine).
Fear has no benefits and no upside. It either pushes you in the wrong direction by producing nervous energy that causes you to do your worst in new situations, or it saps your energy as you fight its paralyzing effects.
Psychologist Randall B. Hamrock observed: “In twenty years [of practice] I’ve talked with, tested, and given vocational counsel to at least 10,000 young men and women. One characteristic that almost all had was the tendency to sell themselves short.” Don’t let fear rob you of your potential. Don’t let it make you smaller than you really are. Believe God for great things, then step out and attempt to do them in His strength. If you do, you’ll succeed. Guaranteed.
Soul food: Job 24-28; Matt 24:26-35; Ps 13; Prov 8:14-16
2021-03-19
Psalm 27:1 NKJV
An old adage says, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” It exaggerates the problem, and as a result, you expend valuable energy in ways you shouldn’t. For example, sometimes you avoid things that can’t really harm you at all. Like the man who returned to his vacation cabin from a hike, badly scratched and bruised. “What happened?” his wife asked. “I met a snake on the trail,” he answered. “Don’t you remember,” his wife responded, “the park ranger told us yesterday that none of the snakes up here are poisonous?” Her husband replied, “They don’t have to be poisonous if they can make you jump off a twenty- foot cliff!” Clearly the man’s fear – not the snake – was the problem.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but…today of its strengths.” As long as you allow fear to take the wheel, you’ll never go where God wants to take you, or discover and develop the talents He has placed within you. And here’s the great thing: God will help you to confront and conquer the fears that are controlling you.
David the giant slayer, author of Psalms and Israel’s beloved king, often found himself with his back to the wall. Writing about such an occasion he said, “Make haste to help me…Lord” (Psalm 38:22 NKJV). “Be pleased…to deliver me” (Psalm 40:13 NKJV). But David knew who to turn to: “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” When God is the source of your strength, you can face your worst fears and overcome them.
Soul food: Job 21-23; Matt 24:15-25; Ps 116:12-19; Prov 8:10-13
2021-03-18
Joshua 3:13 NLT
To enter the Promised Land, the Israelites had to cross the River Jordan at flood stage. Were they afraid? Wouldn’t you be? Nevertheless, the only way to reach their destiny was to do the very thing they feared!
When you let fear take hold, you become even more fearful and end up creating a debilitating cycle that works like this: Fear breeds lack of action. Lack of action breeds lack of experience. Lack of experience breeds ignorance. And ignorance breeds fear. It makes you afraid to do the very thing that would be beneficial to you.
Taking action means you’ll have to move into the unknown and do the untried – and that can be scary. But if you give in to your fears, you won’t move forward. You don’t receive the benefit of what you avoid, nor do you gain the valuable experience that will make your life better. As a result, you remain ignorant about that area of life, and ignorance always breeds more fear, making it that much harder to push ahead and get things done.
Harry Truman remarked: “The worst danger we face is the danger of being paralyzed by doubts and fears. This danger is brought on by those who abandon faith and sneer at hope…by those who spread cynicism and distrust and try to blind us to our great chance to do good for all mankind.”
Somebody said fear is the darkroom where all our negatives are developed. It’s interest paid in advance on a debt you may never owe. And it undermines faith – in yourself, in others, and in God.
Soul food: Job 18-20; Matt 24:1-14; Ps 116:1-11; Prov 8:8-9
2021-03-17
Job 4:14 NKJV
Fear can be devastating. Why? Because it breeds more fear! And the most insidious thing about fear is its ability to exaggerate. C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general of the United States, observed, “People just have an inappropriate sense of what is dangerous.”
Do you fear flying? The fact is, you’re more likely to die from choking on a piece of food than in a commercial airline crash. Are you afraid of dying in a robbery? You’re twice as likely to be killed playing a sport than you are to be stabbed to death by a stranger. Are you afraid of sharks? Every year farmyard pigs slay more people than sharks do. Are you worried about having surgery? You’re sixteen times more likely to die in a car crash than you are from surgical complications.
Seldom do the things we fear come to pass. In our minds we conceive coming disasters that will likely never happen. And when they don’t occur, we think, “That was a close one!” The truth is – our thoughts were the only things creating potential danger for us.
So how should you deal with your fears? By practicing the truth of this Scripture: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]” (Isaiah 26:3-4 AMPC).
Soul food: Job 15-17; Matt 23:23-39; Ps 19; Prov 8:6-7
